A top theory on why Kristi Noem told a story about killing her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket (and a goat), in her new book, No Going Back, was that she was trying to impress Donald Trump. The former president famously hates animals and even humans who “choke like a dog.” If so, this effort clearly backfired. But Trump’s comments on Noem this week suggest he isn’t dropping her completely over the Cricket scandal.
Multiple Trump-world sources have said that Noem’s dog-slaying admission ended any shot she had at being his 2024 VP pick. On May 3, Rolling Stone reported that Trump could not stop talking about Cricket, but it seemed like he was more disturbed by Noem’s terrible political instincts than the killing itself:
In recent days, the former president has discussed or brought up Noem’s pup-execution in closed-door meetings, as well as over the phone. Trump, sources recount, has pointedly asked questions regarding her decision to kill the dog, including specifically, “Why would she do that?” and “What is wrong with her?” He has expressed bewilderment that she would have ever admitted to doing this, willingly and in her own writing, and has argued it demonstrates she has a poor grasp of “public relations.” In these various conversations over the past week, the ex-president has also mentioned that voters generally don’t like politicians who kill dogs, two of the people familiar with the matter add.
But in his first public comments on the Noem scandal, Trump seemed to defend the South Dakota governor. When asked about Noem in an interview on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show that aired Tuesday, he acknowledged “she had a bad week,” adding, “A couple of rough stories, there’s no question about it.” But he seemed to blame No Going Back’s ghostwriter rather than the governor.
“Sometimes, you do books, and you have some guy writing a book, and you maybe don’t read it as carefully. You have ghostwriters, too. They help you, and they, in this case, didn’t help too much,” Trump said.
The hosts asked if Noem is still a running-mate contender or if she could wind up in a Cabinet post. Trump made two ambiguous remarks that may or may not have been answers to those questions. He said, “Well, until this week she was doing incredibly well, and she got hit hard,” adding later, “And in some form — I think she’s terrific.” Perhaps Trump was trying to express that Noem was under serious VP consideration until the Cricket story dropped, but now he’d only consider her for a lesser position. Or maybe he was just rambling.
Either way, Trump isn’t currently pushing Noem away. She was one of the “special guests” at a private fundraiser for Trump in Manhattan on Tuesday, along with VP hopefuls Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and Doug Burgum. NBC News reports that Trump couldn’t resist riffing about Cricket:
“What a week!” Trump said when he got to Noem, adding, “The dog, the dog!”
“I’m really curious,” Trump said, “about the dog.”
But he also praised Noem and seemed “bemused” by the story:
“She’s been there for us for a long time,” Trump said. “She’s loyal, she’s great.”
One of the sources in the room said Trump was more bemused than critical about the dog controversy.
In general, the former president is not very loyal. But it turns out that Noem still outranks ghostwriters, dogs, and a literal scapegoat in Trump’s book.
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